She said: “When anything horrific happens there are ways to handle it and I
decided to make myself better and do what I wanted from then on.

“It wasn’t an oppressive relationship, but there were financial constraints.
There were so many things I couldn’t do. Afterwards I was in a position I
could do anything with unfaltering support from my friends and family.

“I think you have to go really low to get really high.”

So she signed up for the performing arts workshop — which culminated in
students having to perform before classmates.

She recalled: “I learned how to hold a microphone and breathe. At the end I
read a monologue about the divorce.

“Some bits were sad and some were funny — and it was quite a tonic for 50
people to laugh. It’s incredibly addictive.”

Six months later she did her first stand-up gig — in a rough Newcastle pub.

The self-confessed cake addict said: “The first two minutes they just stared
at me with their arms crossed. Then I told a joke about how tactless my dad
was when I was divorced.

“It went from silence to a wall of laughter, and I thought, ‘I like this! My
ex-husband might not love me but these people all do!’

“It was definitely therapy for about six months. People who get divorced
either get drunk or sleep around, but I’m not a drinker or a tart, so
instead I got up and talked to strangers.

“It was the feeling I got from divorce that gave me the incentive and strength
to stand up and tell jokes.

“I had a counsellor but would get on stage and say things that were funny and
people would laugh and go, ‘You’re right!’

“It was like having a group of friends saying, ‘You go girl!’ but they were
strangers.” Six years after her divorce, Sarah is now a telly regular,
appearing on series including Have I Got News For You and with Diddy on The
Graham Norton Show.

Now, as well as nabbing a coveted spot on ITV’s Loose Women panel, Sarah is
also happily in love with long-term partner Gary Delaney, a fellow stand-up.

She has “no idea” where her ex — who she met aged 21 when they both worked in
a local cinema — is, or what he is up to.

Sarah said: “There was no need to see him again. All power to people who want
to stay friends but I felt it would be too hard. We cut off ties.

“He’s not a bad man — we just fell out of love. It happens to a lot of
people and it’s good to be able to handle it.

“We were very young when we married, but you can’t think, ‘I shouldn’t have
done it’, because if I hadn’t, and then got divorced I wouldn’t be here now.”